Episode 250 (Transcript): What About Sin?
Episode Transcript
Many thanks to listener Ginger Hyde for her work in transcribing this episode!
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Episode 250 (Transcript): What About Sin?
CW: But what Peter said about learning and growth made him a kinder person. I think that brings us back to, if that’s the whole purpose–for us to be more like Jesus, for us to become kinder–then isn’t it ultimately okay when we mess up?
SH: Hello, I’m Susan Hinckley.
CW: And I am Cynthia Winward.
SH: And this is At Last She Said It. We are women of faith discussing complicated things, and the title of today’s episode is What About Sin? Let’s talk about sin, Cynthia. That sounds fun!
CW: Yay. Yay.
SH: Yay. Waa, waa, waa.
CW: Exactly. I know. I was trying to think of a more clever title. I noticed you didn’t think of a more clever title either, so we’re just saying what it is. It is what it is, and we’re talking about sin today.
SH: Yes, exactly.
CW: So, sorry about that, listeners. We’re just jumping right in with how icky the topic could be. But I do think in a season where our theme is Big Ideas, I’m glad that we’re tackling this topic, actually. I really can’t think of a topic that’s bigger for Latter-day Saints.
SH: I mean, in Christianity generally
CW: Okay.
SH: I mean, sin is pretty big, right?
CW: Sin is pretty big. You’re right. And we are no different. Because we interview children; we interview youth and adults to assess our worthiness all throughout our lives. ALL throughout our lives. And if you’re in one of those interviews and it happens to dredge up some sins, we have consequences for those sins–all the way from not allowing someone to take the sacrament to holding a meeting where that “sinner’s” membership can be revoked.
SH: Right
CW: And I don’t care if we call it membership withdrawal now, instead of calling it excommunication. Both are very spiritually violent.
SH: Right
CW: So, this is big. This is a really big topic for sin. But I think in order to take it from a really small idea, which, spoiler, I think we make sin to be. I think the way we tackle sin is so small minded. I think you and I wanted to really dig deep on even the definition of sin so that we could make it a bigger idea.
SH: It’s interesting. As you say that, I’m thinking in my own life–it’s kind of worked the opposite. Like sin was a really big thing for so much of my life. And now the older I get, it’s like it’s not a capital S word anymore. It’s a small S word. So I guess we’re going to get to that as we talk about it today.
CW: Well, let’s get to it then.
SH: All right. We put out a call for voicemails a while ago and asked listeners to talk to us about sin because we wanted to know how the idea of it was changing for people on their own journeys. Because I had this hunch that if this concept has changed a lot for me–I’m not that special–it’s probably changing for a lot of people. So, just as a reminder, some of the things that we put out to get people thinking: How has the concept of sin played into your spiritual life? Where did your ideas about it come from and how have those ideas impacted you and your faith? Has your thinking around sin changed? Have you reframed it entirely? Because I kind of have, actually. And so I’m going to talk about a few of those points for myself to start.
CW: Go for it.
